Harry Styles joins the cast of 'Dunkirk'

The 2017 World War II thriller about the evacuation of British and Allied troops from Dunkirk beach.
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I don't think he was that much of a prick actually. Seen several people say Alex is just an asshole and a big bully.
But there's really only one scene where he gets aggressive, and obviously is a Jerk there. There's a whole group of people backing him up. Does it make it better that lots of people are doing the same thing? No, but it shows Alex's behaviour wasn't unusual. Immediately afterwards he redeems himself by trying to save the very man he threatened ("Gibson, leave it!"). He isn't void of feelings and does actually care about others making it out too. On the moonstone he looks down when him and Tommy sees each other, because he's feeling guilty of his behaviour to him.

The way the trawler scene goes we are supposed to think Alex is a jerk and Tommy is our good guy. But Tommy only needs a bit of persuasion to throw Gibson out, actually. When it comes down to it he does say "I'll live with it", meaning Tommy would have let it happen if he had to. A very important line in showing that you can't be all good all the time.
And does Tommy try to save Gibson? Nope, he abandons that ship without ever looking back.

So I think it's much more complex than just who is nice and who is a prick.

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Cocal wrote:And does Tommy try to save Gibson? Nope, he abandons that ship without ever looking back.
Except he does look back when he's swimming towards the Moonstone. But I agree with you that Alex is a complex character

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Cocal wrote:I don't think he was that much of a prick actually. Seen several people say Alex is just an asshole and a big bully.
But there's really only one scene where he gets aggressive, and obviously is a Jerk there. There's a whole group of people backing him up. Does it make it better that lots of people are doing the same thing? No, but it shows Alex's behaviour wasn't unusual. Immediately afterwards he redeems himself by trying to save the very man he threatened ("Gibson, leave it!"). He isn't void of feelings and does actually care about others making it out too. On the moonstone he looks down when him and Tommy sees each other, because he's feeling guilty of his behaviour to him.

The way the trawler scene goes we are supposed to think Alex is a jerk and Tommy is our good guy. But Tommy only needs a bit of persuasion to throw Gibson out, actually. When it comes down to it he does say "I'll live with it", meaning Tommy would have let it happen if he had to. A very important line in showing that you can't be all good all the time.
And does Tommy try to save Gibson? Nope, he abandons that ship without ever looking back.

So I think it's much more complex than just who is nice and who is a prick.
Great points, and exactly why I never saw Alex as the "asshole" that everyone keeps saying that he is. :)

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I think some people are mostly exaggerating the Alex is a fucking terrible bully angle as a joke - I know I am lol. He's obviously a very complex character - something I like about him.

Though, got to say, I don't know how I feel about the others almost blindly following him - I know it's a terrible situation to be in, but it's sheep mentality at its worst and it did make me think about it for a while.
Imagine how terrifying the whole ordeal must have been for Gibson - the guy helped them out and just wanted to get off, whether it's a cowardly thing to do is another discussion, but imagine how hellish it would be to be attacked by people you've helped and being yelled at in a language you don't understand at all.

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prowlercomesaround wrote:
Cocal wrote:
And does Tommy try to save Gibson? Nope, he abandons that ship without ever looking back.
Except he does look back when he's swimming towards the Moonstone. But I agree with you that Alex is a complex character
Ah, I thought there might have been a bit of a moment, but wasnt sure if that was him looking for Gibson or just looking around to figure out where to go or something.
Ruth wrote:I think some people are mostly exaggerating the Alex is a fucking terrible bully angle as a joke - I know I am lol. He's obviously a very complex character - something I like about him.

Though, got to say, I don't know how I feel about the others almost blindly following him - I know it's a terrible situation to be in, but it's sheep mentality at its worst and it did make me think about it for a while.
Imagine how terrifying the whole ordeal must have been for Gibson - the guy helped them out and just wanted to get off, whether it's a cowardly thing to do is another discussion, but imagine how hellish it would be to be attacked by people you've helped and being yelled at in a language you don't understand at all.
Yeah, I sure felt bad for him. I don't think Tommy and Alex knew that Gibson actually saved them twice (opening the door when the torpedo hits and throwing them a rope to be pulled to land after the boat)? Not sure.
And you're right it's crazy how easy people just follow someone. And how the highlanders just wanna stick together because they are from the same regiment, saying Tommy would be the next to have to go because he's not. Thats just how humans are...
I dont know how much we still have to spoiler tag, so im just using them a lot..

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First - a nice tweet

Philip Matthews‏ @secondzeit 7h 7 hours ago
Senior Writer with The Press
I think Harry Styles in DUNKIRK should make any top 10 list of pop singers who act in movies.

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Re Harry saying he may be one and done - it was TOTALLY OBVIOUS to me that Harry was trying as hard as he could to keep the topic on Dunkirk and not on himself. He is very media trained. He had 6 years of practice. He was at those interviews as a representative of Dunkirk for the purpose of Dunkirk promo. He was not going to talk about himself, his future plans, etc. even though interviewers kept trying to get a "Harry Styles" interview instead of a Dunkirk interview. If he was directly asked about his music tour he answered briefly. But if he was asked about doing more acting, he refused to go there. They refused to accept "I really haven't thought about it" so when pressed more he said "Maybe I'm one and done." "I peaked too soon.". And if they continued to press he said "I would do this one again" "I liked this one".

I think what he said in Dunkirk press interviews has absolutely nothing to do with whether he will act again in the future. I think it's clear he enjoyed it. I also think he has to be careful what he chooses next time so it won't detract from this stellar start. And I KNOW he doesn't want to be inundated with scripts at THIS time because his management already said that publicly, long before Dunkirk promo started. Harry has two nearly back-to-back world tours to put on (with awards season in between). He is busy until mid-2018. I really don't think we have to worry that Harry will never act again - it's just not happening in the immediate future.

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And finally - was Alex a
bully, a jerk, an a-hole? Harry thinks Alex is a bit of an a-hole.
Watch here around 5:55 for the whole a-hole bit - so funny.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qskq_3kblw

But I think Harry stated before he didn't think Alex was a bad person.

I think Alex was a soldier who reacted badly to fear and being trapped - it brought out the worst in him. I also think (as Harry said) that Alex was as scared as everyone else, even when he didn't show it. I think he was as lost as everyone else. I just think after they failed to get out of there (multiple times for Alex - he was on the hospital ship too) he was getting a bit desperate. And when they got trapped in the grounded ship the Germans were using for target practice, he snapped. It did shock me that he also threatened Tommy but at that point his crowd - his regiment - were backing him up and it became us or them.

I'm glad Tommy accepted Alex back with the nod on the Moonstone, and that they were together on the train. Tommy had a clear conscience and fell asleep easily on the train. Alex had a lot of guilt.
Re spoiler tags - there are some countries that don't get the film until September..
Last edited by dormouse7 on July 28th, 2017, 10:16 am, edited 1 time in total.

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“My first task was to take him out to sea and see if I could make him seasick. We went out from Dunkirk in some quite rough weather, and the plan didn’t work. He loved every minute of it… went right up to the bow of the ship with some of the crew and held an impromptu singsong.” - The Captain of the HMS Medusa talking about working with Harry

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About group mentality
See, I think the fact that they were all Highlanders aided group mentality. It wasn't just that Gibson was an 'other'.
A different nationality. It was also that Tommy was an 'other'. Alex and the rest of the soldiers were all Highlanders, so they had a sense of belonging to each other that Tommy and Gibson didn't have. That can be very positive and sometimes, like here, very negative. I think that there's another layer to Alex being upset and that's that he's obsessed with his duty as a soldier. The mere fact that he's retreating affects him the whole time. He can't stop going on about it. So Gibson retreating when he doesn't have a right to must be doubly wrong for him.

I do think he redeemed himself when he came back for Gibson and tried to save him, but as much as it killed me that Gibson drowned, I like that he couldn't, if that makes sense? It would've been such an obvious choice to have Alex go full circle: 'wanted to sacrifice him, now saved his life', but I feel like Nolan never wants to go there, to the obvious choice.

Also, technically Gibson saves Alex's life three times, the sinking ship when he and Tommy are at the mole, opening the vault door in the sinking ship and the rope from the row boat, though just the door is actually clear danger.

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Thought there was a lot of complexity in a lot of the characters, particularly for a film where we didn't get much backstory on any of them
From Cillian's portrayal of a scared "shivering" shell-shocked soldier who 'wasn't going back' to Alex, who was so glum at the old guy who 'wouldn't look him in the eye' because the old dude was blind - I thought there were a lot of moments that made you think about how people aren't simple. They're never just one thing. One moment of someone being a dick, or a bit of a coward, or a bit of a liar, shouldn't color your entire opinion of them, yet it often does. Some interesting and subtle life lessons for us all.

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New interview, mainly with Harry

http://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/leisure/sta ... ref=twtrec

Includes a quote from Nolan:
"With great actors, and Harry is a great actor as people will see when they see the film, you don't worry about other things they have done, you trust that they are going to create a characterisation for the audience that allows them to lose themselves in the audience.

"That is exactly what Harry does in the film and I was confident that he would be able to do that."

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